Location: Fayetteville, North Carolina
Date: 10/20/08
The tires were cut Sunday outside Fayetteville's Crown Coliseum, The Fayetteville Observer reported Monday.
Also this:
"The welcome wasn’t as warm at Cape Fear BBQ & Chicken on Grove Street in Fayetteville, where [Obama] stopped to pick up lunch.
When Obama walked in, patron Diane Fanning, 54, yelled, 'Boo, socialist! Socialist! Get out of here!'
Another woman responded loudly, 'At least he’s not a warmonger!'"
Source: Charlotte News & Observer and The Fayetteville Observer
"A dead bear was found dumped this morning on the Western Carolina University campus, draped with a pair of Obama campaign signs, university police said.
Maintenance workers reported about 7:45 a.m. finding a 75-pound bear cub dumped at the roundabout near the Catamount statute at the entrance to campus, said Tom Johnson, chief of university police.
"'It looked like it had been shot in the head as best we can tell. A couple of Obama campaign signs had been stapled together and stuck over its head,' Johnson said."
Bonus ugliness!: Early Obama voters in the state get heckled....
Source: Asheville Citizen-Times and Washington Times
Date: 10/21/08
In the Richmond-area town of Chesterfield, an Obama yard sign was torn down and replaced with a Confederate flag. (Says the amazingly gracious homeowner: "I feel like this is somebody with a lot of hatred in their heart... It's our job to help the guy try to do better in life.")
Meanwhile, an update on the dead bear covered with Obama signs in North Carolina: A local businessman is offering a reward, though not for the reasons you might expect:
"Linn Beachem, owner of Beachem Carpet & Tile Care, said his $500 reward is not about the potential political message behind the incident. Instead, he is motivated by the act of someone killing and them dumping a bear on campus.
"'I don’t want to make it about politics,' he said this morning. 'It is just a despicable act.'"
Source: InRich.com
Local GOP Official: Obama A Muslim Socialist
Location:Date:You may have seen that the head of a New Mexico GOP women’s group sent a letter to a local newspaper this week calling Obama a “Muslim socialist” and saying that “Muslims are our enemies.” When the letter generated an outcry among Democrats and Muslims, the letter's author, Marcia Stirman, told the AP: “I don't trust them at all. They've sworn across the world that they are our enemies. Why we're trying to elect one is beside me."
Today, another letter-writer responds to Stirman in the same newspaper, writing: “I don't really know about Obama being a Muslim but I do believe he is a socialist.” He goes on to insist that Christians cannot vote for the Democratic nominee.
Sources: Alamogordo Daily News, Las Cruces Sun-News, and Alamogordo Daily News (again)
It's worth noting that even if true, this sounds like a standard robbery with an insane, politically-related act tacked on after the assailant noticed a McCain bumper sticker. Even in the victim's telling, the original assault was not about politics.
Reasonable caveats from Ed Morrissey (who is also a little dubious):
"Not too many young women would scar their faces just to create a political hoax. As for the reversed/upside-down B.... [i]t could have gotten reversed on the computer, or the attacker may have had her on the ground with her head upside-down in relation to his."
Clearly something terrible happened here, but I'd be happy to say nothing about it because it has no real relevance to the campaign--except that it's clear some people, notably Drudge, are determined to make it an issue in a critical swing state where race is probably a factor. (Yes, her attacker was allegedly African-American, which I assume is supposed to give it special resonance in certain quarters that John Murtha can tell you about.)
Source: The Pittsburgh Channel
Date: 10/24/08
It hardly seemed possible, but the anti-Obama letter-writing fracas in New Mexico that Seyward wrote about yesterday gets even more tragicomic:
"Liberals can say whatever they please and a conservative speaks her mind and all hell breaks loose. What a double standard! How any sane person can vote for Obama is baffling. He refuses to wear a flag pin and salute the flag."
Souce: Alamogordo Daily News
"NIXA, Mo. — A Republican official in a southern Missouri county says a flyer showing a picture of Barack Obama and the phrase, 'In Ahla We Trust' has been removed from party headquarters.
The flyer that was available at the Christian County Republican office Thursday asserts that Obama is a Muslim, a false claim that has followed the Democratic senator during his presidential campaign. Obama is a Christian.
McCain Supporter Faked Her "Mugging"
Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Date:10/24/08
This one performed the impressive trick of starting out as anti-McCain ugliness and wound up being an arguably worse act of anti-Obama ugliness.
It'll be interesting to see whether Drudge blares the hoax coverage the way he did the initial racist lie. So far he hasn't. (Update: Now he is. Let's see for how long.)
P.S. Wonkette flags a delicious blog item from a senior Fox News executive:
"If Ms. Todd’s allegations are proven accurate, some voters may revisit their support for Senator Obama, not because they are racists (with due respect to Rep. John Murtha), but because they suddenly feel they do not know enough about the Democratic nominee.
If the incident turns out to be a hoax, Senator McCain’s quest for the presidency is over, forever linked to race-baiting."
If any readers are seeing whether Fox's coverage is reflecting that opinion, do let us know.
Source: KDKA Pittsburgh
Additional reporting by Seyward Darby.